Methods and apparatus to manage workload domains in virtual server racks

• US 10,313,479 B2
• Filed: 09/29/2016
• Issued: 06/04/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/24/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Lochhead, Jason A., Yavatkar, Raj, Reddy, Thirumalesh, Ankala, Shreekanth
• Primary Examiner(s): Shingles, Kristie D
• Application Number:
  US15/280,334
• Publication Number:
  US 20170149931A1
• Time in Patent Office: 978 Days
• Field of Search: 709226
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0896 Bandwidth or capacity management, i.e. automatically increasing or decreasing capacities flow or congestion control using dynamic resource allocation, e.g. in-call renegotiation, H04L47/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/40 using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5006 Creating or negotiating SLA contracts, guarantees or penalties
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5096 wherein the managed service relates to distributed or central networked applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 Admission control; Resource allocation

Abstract

Methods and apparatus to manage workload domains in virtual server racks are disclosed. An example apparatus includes a policy enforcer to evaluate whether capacities of the plurality of workload domains comply with policy capacity levels of respective user-defined policies for the plurality of workload domains, and a resource manager to, when a first workload domain has a first quantity of resources that exceeds a first policy capacity level of a first user-defined policy, identify a second workload domain requesting a second quantity of resources, when the second quantity of resources is equal to the first quantity of resources, allocate the first quantity of resources from the first workload domain to the second workload domain to satisfy the first policy capacity level, when the second quantity of resources is less than the first quantity of resources, allocate the second quantity of resources from the first workload domain to the second workload domain, and de-allocate remaining resources from the first workload domain to a shared resource pool to satisfy the first policy capacity level.

Claims

1. An apparatus to manage a plurality of workload domains, the apparatus comprising:

a policy enforcer to evaluate whether capacities of the plurality of workload domains comply with policy capacity levels of respective user-defined policies for the plurality of workload domains; and

a resource manager to, when a first workload domain has a first quantity of resources that exceeds a first policy capacity level of a first user-defined policy;

identify a second workload domain requesting a second quantity of resources;

when the second quantity of resources is equal to the first quantity of resources, allocate the first quantity of resources from the first workload domain to the second workload domain to satisfy the first policy capacity level; and

when the second quantity of resources is less than the first quantity of resources;

allocate the second quantity of resources from the first workload domain to the second workload domain; and

de-allocate remaining resources from the first workload domain to a shared resource pool to satisfy the first policy capacity level.

2. An apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein the second workload domain is to request the second quantity of resources to satisfy a second policy capacity level associated with a second user-defined policy for the second workload domain.

3. An apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein the resource manager is to, when the second quantity of resources is greater than the first quantity of resources:

identify a third workload domain with a third quantity of resources that exceeds a third policy capacity level of a third user-defined policy;

when an aggregate of the first quantity of resources and the third quantity of resources is equal to the second quantity of resources;

allocate the first quantity of resources from the first workload domain to the second workload domain; and

allocate the third quantity of resources from the third workload domain to the second workload domain to satisfy the third policy capacity level;

when an aggregate of the first quantity of resources and the third quantity of resources is less than the second quantity of resources and another workload domain with excess resources is not identified;

de-allocate the first quantity of resources from the first workload domain to a shared resource pool to satisfy the first policy capacity level; and

de-allocate the third quantity of resources from the first workload domain to a shared resource pool to satisfy the third policy capacity level.

4. An apparatus as defined in claim 3, wherein when the aggregate of the first quantity of resources and the third quantity of resources is less than the second quantity of resources and another workload domain with excess resources is identified, allocate the first quantity of resources, the third quantity of resources, and the excess resources to the second workload domain.

5. An apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein the first quantity of resources exceeds the first policy capacity level of the first user-defined policy by a threshold amount.

6. An apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein the policy enforcer is to categorize the plurality of workload domains according to a policy update type.

7. An apparatus as defined in claim 6, wherein the policy update type is at least one of CPU speed, memory, or mass storage.

8. A method to manage a plurality of workload domains, the method comprising:

evaluating, by executing an instruction with a processor, whether capacities of the plurality of workload domains comply with policy capacity levels of respective user-defined policies for the plurality of workload domains; and

when a first workload domain has a first quantity of resources that exceeds a first policy capacity level of a first user-defined policy;

identifying, by executing an instruction with the processor, a second workload domain requesting a second quantity of resources;

when the second quantity of resources is equal to the first quantity of resources, allocating, by executing an instruction with the processor, the first quantity of resources from the first workload domain to the second workload domain to satisfy the first policy capacity level; and

when the second quantity of resources is less than the first quantity of resources;

allocating, by executing an instruction with the processor, the second quantity of resources from the first workload domain to the second workload domain; and

de-allocating, by executing an instruction with the processor, remaining resources from the first workload domain to a shared resource pool to satisfy the first policy capacity level.

9. A method as defined in claim 8, wherein the second workload domain is to request the second quantity of resources to satisfy a second policy capacity level associated with a second user-defined policy for the second workload domain.

10. A method as defined in claim 8, further including, when the second quantity of resources is greater than the first quantity of resources:

identifying a third workload domain with a third quantity of resources that exceeds a third policy capacity level of a third user-defined policy;

when an aggregate of the first quantity of resources and the third quantity of resources is equal to the second quantity of resources;

allocating the first quantity of resources from the first workload domain to the second workload domain; and

allocating the third quantity of resources from the third workload domain to the second workload domain to satisfy the third policy capacity level;

when an aggregate of the first quantity of resources and the third quantity of resources is less than the second quantity of resources and another workload domain with excess resources is not identified;

de-allocating the first quantity of resources from the first workload domain to a shared resource pool to satisfy the first policy capacity level; and

de-allocating the third quantity of resources from the first workload domain to a shared resource pool to satisfy the third policy capacity level.

11. A method as defined in claim 10, further including, when the aggregate of the first quantity of resources and the third quantity of resources is less than the second quantity of resources and another workload domain with excess resources is identified, allocating the first quantity of resources, the third quantity of resources, and the excess resources to the second workload domain.

12. A method as defined in claim 8, wherein the first quantity of resources exceeds the first policy capacity level of the first user-defined policy by a threshold amount.

13. A method as defined in claim 8, further including categorizing the plurality of workload domains according to a policy update type.

14. A method as defined in claim 13, wherein the policy update type is at least one of CPU speed, memory, or mass storage.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a machine to at least:

evaluate whether capacities of a plurality of workload domains comply with policy capacity levels of respective user-defined policies for the plurality of workload domains; and

when a first workload domain has a first quantity of resources that exceeds a first policy capacity level of a first user-defined policy;

identify a second workload domain requesting a second quantity of resources;

when the second quantity of resources is equal to the first quantity of resources, allocate the first quantity of resources from the first workload domain to the second workload domain to satisfy the first policy capacity level; and

when the second quantity of resources is less than the first quantity of resources;

allocate the second quantity of resources from the first workload domain to the second workload domain; and

de-allocate remaining resources from the first workload domain to a shared resource pool to satisfy the first policy capacity level.

16. A storage medium as defined in claim 15, wherein the second workload domain is to request the second quantity of resources to satisfy a second policy capacity level associated with a second user-defined policy for the second workload domain.

17. A storage medium as defined in claim 15, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to, when the second quantity of resources is greater than the first quantity of resources:

identify a third workload domain with a third quantity of resources that exceeds a third policy capacity level of a third user-defined policy;

when an aggregate of the first quantity of resources and the third quantity of resources is equal to the second quantity of resources;

allocate the first quantity of resources from the first workload domain to the second workload domain; and

allocate the third quantity of resources from the third workload domain to the second workload domain to satisfy the third policy capacity level;

when an aggregate of the first quantity of resources and the third quantity of resources is less than the second quantity of resources and another workload domain with excess resources is not identified;

de-allocate the first quantity of resources from the first workload domain to a shared resource pool to satisfy the first policy capacity level; and

de-allocate the third quantity of resources from the first workload domain to a shared resource pool to satisfy the third policy capacity level.

18. A storage medium as defined in claim 17, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to, when the aggregate of the first quantity of resources and the third quantity of resources is less than the second quantity of resources and another workload domain with excess resources is identified, allocate the first quantity of resources, the third quantity of resources, and the excess resources to the second workload domain.

19. A storage medium as defined in claim 15, wherein the first quantity of resources exceeds the first policy capacity level of the first user-defined policy by a threshold amount.

20. A storage medium as defined in claim 15, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to categorize the plurality of workload domains according to a policy update type.